1. Field of the Invention
A supply system for supplying electrical energy and data signals to a subscriber module in a contact-free manner, including a support member, a supply bar mounted on the support member, which supply bar supports primary energy and data interfaces, and at least one bus subscriber module mounted on the support member, which bus subscriber module includes secondary energy and data interfaces arranged adjacent and spaced from the primary energy and data interfaces, respectively, whereby electrical energy and data signals supplied to the primary interfaces are transmitted in a contact-free manner to the secondary interfaces, respectively.
2. Description of Related Art
As shown by the patents to Guethoff et al U.S. Pat. No. 7,445,487 and Diekmann et al U.S. Pat. No. 7,658,653, among others, it is know in the prior art to mount terminal blocks on U-shaped mounting rails.
It is also known that by means of electromagnetic induction, one can, together or separately and in a contactless manner, transmit communications signals and possibly also electrical energy from a transmitter unit to a receiver unit. According to a particular variant, this involves an inductive transfer with the help of a high-frequency magnetic field from a primary coil (transmitter) to a secondary coil (receiver). It is furthermore also known that one can transmit electrical energy and data in a capacitive manner between two switching circuits. The capacitive coupling, which depends heavily on the distance, grows along with the rising frequency.
Such systems are known in the prior art, as evidenced by the German patents No. DE 102 03 765 B4, and DE 100 26 174 A1, and the U.S. published application No. US 2001/0024888A1, which are cited for technological background.
In the European patent No. EP 1 885 085 A1, it is proposed to supply electrical energy to the bus subscriber modules of a data bus in a contactless manner by means of inductive transmission and in this manner to transmit data. The solution proposed by this reference is too little flexible inasmuch as it requires that the bus subscribers and the pertinent assembly base be assembled at precisely mutually coordinated plug-in sites. But in this way, it is, however, only possible to couple the electronic housings of a predetermined structural width with the assembly base. That predetermines fixed catch points and that constitutes yet another problem. Solving this problem is a primary object of the present invention.